Perfect UM2 Settings for printing warp free PLA?

[netsrac 4]

Hi,

while reading across this forum, I found that the default setting from UM2 for PLA with a bed temperature of 75°C seems not to be perfect.

While the sample prints from the SD Card look quite good, I do see problems with my own prints where the bottom layers send to warp.

So what's the trick? I already turned down the bed temperature to 65°C.

What else should I do? I do not care about speed at all....all I wanna have is a damn good quality.

So what are the "quality perfect settings" when printing with Ultimaker PLA?

Thanks, Netsrac

 

[takei-naodar 0]

When i do a high quality Print these are my settings:

Bed temp: 45°C

Nozzle temp: 220°C at 1st layer after that 200°C

30mm outside layer 40mm inside layer 50mm infill speed

1.2mm Shell and 1mm top bottom thickness atleast

0.06 Layer height

 

[eldrick 64]

Try starting at 65C for the first layer or two, then turn it down to 55C. At 65C, the PLS is softened, and sticks best. At 55C it hardens - a better base for subsequent layers, and which can stiffen the structure against warpage.

 

[SandervG 1,518]

And clean the glass when it looks dirty or when you have done numerous prints.

By grease, dust or excessive glue-residue you will have less adhesion to the bed

 

[gr5 2,005]

The warpage you saw wasn't due to shrinking - it had more to do with putting a layer of pla onto the layer below that still was melted. It looks warped due to heat/cooling but it's actually due to the PLA still being a liquid. That's why 75C is too hot. When a layer goes down the stretchiness of the PLA strand is like a rubber band being placed down and it pulls inward so if you make for example a cylinder it may pull in quite a bit as the layer is placed. But with lots of fan and keeping the bed at 70C or cooler you should have no trouble.

The other big issue that is related is that the corners of parts lift up due to shrinking. This is more of a problem on larger parts (more than 100mm) because 3% shrinkage is more mm the larger the part and more force is applied to the corners. There are many solutions to this problem! Many solutions that all work. For example some people use the "raft" feature which allows the part to bend and shrink a little but still holds it down for a good looking part. But the bottom layer comes out very ugly. I don't recommend this method. Another method is to round the corners or add brim. Having rounded corners keeps all the forces away from a single point. This method alone is usually not enough and is usually combined with another method.

The third method involves heat - a heated chamber is best at around 60C but a heated bed alone can keep the bottom of your part in the "glass" state which is soft like clay and will not lift - instead it warps slightly but not visibly. But the temp needs to be around 70C for this to work. 60C is probably not enough.

The fourth and final trick is get it to stick better! This is the most complicated and simplest. Any heated bed of temp 40C or hotter is enough to get good stickiness. Glue stick helps. wood glue mixed with water helps. Certain materials help (e.g. plywood, particle board, kapton tape, abs glue for abs, hairspray, hot clean glass). Heat helps. Squishing the bottom layer a little into the bed helps.

 

[netsrac 4]

When i do a high quality Print these are my settings:

Bed temp: 45°C

Nozzle temp: 220°C at 1st layer after that 200°C

30mm outside layer 40mm inside layer 50mm infill speed

1.2mm Shell and 1mm top bottom thickness atleast

0.06 Layer height

 

Thanks, I saved this as a profile and will test it...

 

[netsrac 4]

Try starting at 65C for the first layer or two, then turn it down to 55C. At 65C, the PLS is softened, and sticks best. At 55C it hardens - a better base for subsequent layers, and which can stiffen the structure against warpage.

 

Is there any way to automatically add the temperature adjustment to the GCode files from Cura? Sure, I can adjust it from the Ultimaker2 Menu via Tune. But I'm more a software, than a hardware guy :-)

So any chance to automatically do the adjustments?

Thanks, Netsrac

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Is there any way to automatically add the temperature adjustment to the GCode files from Cura? Sure, I can adjust it from the Ultimaker2 Menu via Tune. But I'm more a software, than a hardware guy :smile:

So any chance to automatically do the adjustments?

Thanks, Netsrac

 

Yes, there is...

 

[netsrac 4]

Okay...thanks....so if I set the UM2 (via the display) to e.g. Extruder 220°C and Bed to 65°C, then use "Tweak at Z" to change the temperature after the second Layer to "Extruder 200°C and Bed to 45°C", this would do the trick, right?

This means the UM2 always starts with the default Temperature set in the device until you tweak it from within the software?!

Thanks, Netsrac

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Okay...thanks....so if I set the UM2 (via the display) to e.g. Extruder 220°C and Bed to 65°C, then use "Tweak at Z" to change the temperature after the second Layer to "Extruder 200°C and Bed to 45°C", this would do the trick, right?

This means the UM2 always starts with the default Temperature set in the device until you tweak it from within the software?!

Thanks, Netsrac

 

It should be like that, yes. If the plugin doesn't behave that way, could you please report it to me? As a matter of fact, I could only perform dry runs (means without a physical UM2) when implementing the UltiGCode.

Be aware that you have to put in the height or layer number on which you want the printer to start with the new settings and not the previous layer.

 

[netsrac 4]

Okay, I gave it a try...just looked at the GCode for now. Here are the settings I had add to Cura:

It does not change change the temperature in the GCode file. All I could find at the end of the file is:

 

G10
G0 F9000 X120.00 Y122.83 Z7.00
;TweakAtZ V3.1.1: executed at 5.00 mm
M25 ;Stop reading from this point on.
;CURA_PROFILE_STRING:eNrtV01v20YQvRJCf8TckqIxS1KSnUTgoWltX5IigNXW8YVYkUNpa5JL7C71Cf33zi4/TNlSmjS5FLAPtvk4Mzvz9s2MlLENymiBfL7Qoed6586KZVmkFzy+L1Cp0HcDR6KWLNZcFBEWbJZhOJUVOkpkPIkyG6Hn4KScIiRYKK43YeA5hdhuM4wU3yIdMXJKyQsdqRIxCcde86gxL1EyXUkMg+AIGoRHwOExcNSBM0wOAl94jqrKUkgd/i4KdMqM6VTIPGLJAhXVV8ONTZRULItwrWVl370TeuGseImRFiuU4RXLFPaAaCmyKsfQHztCbKngBccsacyIFJYj5ZRw+qvJPXBfj5/Cpswn4PAYOOqDaSZWoe/RDfZvq+Z49AhluagKHY7ccR+1xTav/PPDdzkvInpYYkZ6OHgTi3zGi3ktiEMPnh+wR0kcKGkhSoM5M6G1yHsC8tyhI2Z/Y0wa4cW9NRJLlBkrbZIEEMN1Ok2F/rgXqRZk+8LhhdVjJzdeKNRe8zxsntcdVU4sRGYLboTN6UYvnJS12k8a8d9zUkjGCyQOLGcNNGdlOKRs6qeWhwyLuV7QeZ4NlVaUUtd1Y4s1GTcW9inK2doiXVIpoSRmElkDLpBRD/JUNzqrm1ITub0erZmpEctGw6fhpxW73pQYXkuedAgr5tTq513PRNa1Pv3Bb70hRSrNith090WHb/uwsS+5ZJmZAXWiM8nzPn/U85KlxBiTc16E4/rJGqiSxUZkvtvYzJjCR4p5wI3LiifEtknH4jQLUKYsPnQKHr/sewZE1JpEKiWnS4+qwnaOGY3EU8RaLk+bzLrG79tQfqLEIppxrY4ZUL+YwbmkojXX8cKUXZuVWUW8EFmk53n4Miv9wcukDAY3L0omWa5eDMqhQUYDdfOCborUmiOB48Gf0xWy+1/0nVtuBuX5QDG3bbAYTfHROjzzH0Ebgn6g+5PancciwXByk/EYE2D6LewSttmb3xrpj2mR/WDyjikeAzWTpqTVW3hv+gdqkZNL1ts0e/iLeCKb3eG22cMVSYzg/gqh0B/NNAdzDr1r5n196FUzAIGYTWrHeiDWk2yf96BVffa85xULpfte5pmifvDfeHCzO7pE9jD5o6CxZ/21AJYksBGVBLEqgGyhZwtGUSac96YL96WhnoS5Dnxofia0ACSRvWRZhWpwTdm2b9iMWr7SCKUg8kiRdBkDSuCiNbB3CiuuF6AXCDRrQKQpRX8Ntx588kx0Gg9w+/MnkxMNHcAiUTRRlDW685oUjNHdUxMf7vyx68HVrj+i942DObLdupCYOv1xnlMFAVx2RTz8TLYohXWyiyQheutJas65CjwPLoePPBpDGOY5FQZmYAKlFt9//SHA5owX9qjDYkiRlQZ7n0Qv5CRdNkcQBbz/9TdQsUQsiHT/Aj42Nq7rOsRR20uXRQLXv9K/5mpGcHMkq14tpouo1aS9qA/+yDvpYO0SK8MHF3jJU6MrWFAJwPWPxIQPX/AzkUhXRcPoQExEx+UZUUK77F+c7a6vVdY2HAOafJQf3b+RdWr5Mxb1h8RXRk90KtIgByVyNFdoNSOJY2oFq6+faGVSDmO4PQtIsubXcbXdQVU2RzJivM2oywaXWEAuTNgH+X+2qFOt8YqytYmafQxcgSCBNLmv2Gbw4fXodFClsaReV3Ujvjmdw9HudmxHB89j+juM6dG3j+l62k/9Y5GC/xTKe94dn9sd0xOzbHKzMp+gzCnGM6AB0M7Tb9k3vnd83/jed1049qyz3fEvaPvB1PuiolMulf4/lf2d9mxwYtFOva/ctcbHf97Pz/v5W/Zz8424/22qAx8+FNbf5w+MLNKzkEjzL0Y3VkuKYDv9spFgt/7r/p+hXlFz2PriSkrLZqtWw7W9U0I69BWsFuTQNZud8nmVaV5mXcdK5TbtXctseA5XY8/zWnC6aw33xuB2R1+oo/UePtl/6MPInf1nu3/S6Sbco2j/AK/Ks7o=

If I understand your plugin correctly, there should be a

 

M140 S45

for changing the bed temperature to 45°C at some point. But unfortunately I can not find this in the file.

Any ideas?

 

[netsrac 4]

Okay...did another test....it only worked when I enable the plugin first and then load the STL file. Quite strange.

 

[dgsharp 0]

I was going to say you need to change the gcode flavor to reprap/marlin. I take it you did that as well? Or is that no longer a requirement? (That would be nice.)

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I was going to say you need to change the gcode flavor to reprap/marlin. I take it you did that as well? Or is that no longer a requirement? (That would be nice.)

 

It is nice... since V3.1.x, see here...

 

[gr5 2,005]

"Tweak at Z" to change the temperature after the second Layer to "Extruder 200°C and Bed to 45°C", this would do the trick, right?

 

Two things:

1) The printer tends to "overshoot" so going from 220 to 200 will dip down to 195 for a bit. You might want to do it in 2 stages - go to 205, then 200 the following layer.

2) The good (and bad) thing about plugins is that they are saved along with all other settings. So the good thing is once this is set up it will work for all future prints unless you go in and remove the plugin. The bad news is if you don't want it on all future prints you might forget and get it anyway.

 

[z-axis-3d 4]

Glue stick helps.  wood glue mixed with water helps.  Certain materials help (e.g. plywood, particle board, kapton tape, abs glue for abs, hairspray, hot clean glass).  Heat helps.  Squishing the bottom layer a little into the bed helps.

 

The type of wood glue also makes a difference I have found recently. I was using a PVA "no name brand" wood glue for ages and it worked OK. When I ran out and got some EVO-Stick (by Bostik) interior wood adhesive I was struck by the difference it made -With the PVA the part would break loose once the bed cooled, with the Proper wood glue it took some effort to remove even after cooling (but not as bad as buildtak)

[dancorrigan 0]

 

When i do a high quality Print these are my settings:

Bed temp: 45°C

Nozzle temp: 220°C at 1st layer after that 200°C

30mm outside layer 40mm inside layer 50mm infill speed

1.2mm Shell and 1mm top bottom thickness atleast

0.06 Layer height

 

Thanks, I saved this as a profile and will test it...

 

I did too. Will try.